Most glass facades hang on a metal frame. Structural glass facades let the glass carry the structure itself — cable nets pulled drum-tight, glass fins acting as beams, full-glass walls with the mullion reduced to a memory. The engineering question is always the same: how transparent can a wall be before safety stops being a compromise?
A pre-tensioned net of stainless cables spans the opening; glass panels are point-clamped at the nodes. The net transfers wind loads to the perimeter structure through cable tension, leaving the view unobstructed by mullions. The discipline is in the pre-tension: too low, and the net goes slack and flutters; too high, and the perimeter steel must absorb enormous forces.
Vertical or horizontal laminated glass fins act as the primary structure behind the skin. The facade plane stays fully glazed; the fins read as subtle glass blades inside. Fins are engineered for buckling, lateral-torsional stability and post-breakage performance — a laminated fin keeps carrying load even if one glass ply is damaged.
Where spans are modest, glass panels are bonded edge-to-edge with structural silicone, forming a continuous plane supported at floor edges and a slim head track. The mullion disappears entirely; the adhesive is engineered, tested and documented as a load path, with design life checked against the joint's movement capacity.
In a framed facade, a broken pane is a maintenance event. In a structural glass facade, a broken pane is a structural event — so redundancy is engineered, not hoped for:
Common design ranges for the systems we engineer; final values are calculated per project span, wind zone and glass specification.
| Parameter | Typical Range / Value | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Cable-net span | 6–25 m single span | Pre-tension tuned to net stiffness and perimeter capacity |
| Glass fin depth | 150–600 mm (laminated) | Scales with span, wind zone and bay width |
| Glass build-up | Laminated 12–24 mm; toughened or heat-soaked where required | Post-breakage redundancy by design |
| Air / water performance | GB/T 21086 Grades 3–4 / 4–5 | Sealed at point fixings and structural silicone joints |
| Structural silicone joint | 12–20 mm width, engineered bite | Tested for adhesion and movement capacity |
| Support hardware | Stainless steel point fittings, spiders, tension rods | 316-grade stainless typical for exposed hardware |
| Deflection limit | L/200–L/300 under design wind | Cable nets may exceed at mid-span by design agreement |
A sculptural museum in Hangzhou where curved stone volumes and controlled glass apertures had to resolve into one envelope — structural glass and point-supported glazing working alongside stone cladding under a museum's exacting light-control brief.
Read the case study →
Where the goal is maximum openness without a full structural system — spider fittings and tension members that reduce frame presence while meeting the same performance grades.
Read the system technicals →The structural behavior, thermal analysis and shop drawings behind every one of these systems are produced by our own facade engineering practice — the same team that runs structural verification on every Hanart facade before it is fabricated.
Send us the atrium, lobby or museum wall you want to open up. Our engineers will respond with a structural glass concept and its feasibility within 24 hours.
